JACKSON, Miss. - Senior Darius Williams scored 27 points to power the Prairie View A&M men's basketball team to a 74-60 win over Jackson State during Southwestern Athletic Conference action Monday evening in the Lee E. Williams Athletic Assembly Center.

D. Williams scored 14 points in the first half and in all was 6-of-9 from the floor, including a stellar 4-of-6 from beyond the arc and 11-of-13 from the free throw line. He also accounted for three rebounds and a pair of steals. Senior Gerard Andrus and sophomore Faite Williams each scored 11 points for the Panthers (8-10, 4-1 SWAC).

"It's a great win," PVAMU Head Coach Byron Smith said. "I think that sometimes, it gets lost that teams are going to compete. My hat goes off to Jackson State. (JSU coach) Wayne Brent is a veteran coach and a savvy coach, and his teams are always going to be prepared. They defended our action. Obviously, we didn't get off to the start that we wanted to offensively, but I thought we still defended. We spotted them eight points, but I don't think we were ever phased by that."

Forced to play catch-up early on as Jackson State scored the game's first eight points, the Panthers responded with a 14-3 run to take their first lead of the game with 8:45 left before intermission holding strong in pole position going into the locker room.
 
Up 34-30 to start the second half, the Panthers fell victim to a 10-3 run that allowed Jackson State to take a 40-37 lead with 13:36 left in the game. The Panthers refused to go away quietly, with senior marksman Chancellor Ellis knocking down a three to tie the game at 40.

"We knew that we could play better," Smith said of the Panthers' resiliency. "We kept talking about defending and rebounding and we started to get a few buckets in the second half."

The Tigers regained the lead with a Roland Griffin free throw, but D. Williams scored the game's next eight points to put the Panthers up seven with 11:11 left to play. The Tigers cut into the deficit momentarily, but Patterson scored on the Panthers' next trip to restore the Panther advantage to seven.

"In this building last year, Darius had 28 -- 22 in the first half," Smith said of D. Williams' superb efforts. "It's something about Jackson, Mississippi. I think maybe he ought to try and buy some property down here, or he's got some relatives down here that he doesn't know about that are praying hard for him. But he's capable. On any given night, he's one of the most dynamic scorers in our league that's not a starter. I tend to look at him as an Eddie House-type: instant offense off the bench. We could easily start him, but we needed that extra boost off the bench and obviously, he brought it tonight and he got it going. He got a little impatient in the second half, but you've got to live with it. He really had a big night for us."

After both sides endured a near two-minute stretch without a made field-goal, the sides began trading buckets with Prairie View remaining in the driver's seat for much of the way.

Griffin converted another free throw to shrink the Panthers' lead to five, but Prairie View A&M found a second gear as senior Gerard Andrus keyed an 8-2 run that ballooned the Panthers' lead to 61-50 with 4:01 to go. The Panthers never looked back, leading by no less than eight the rest of the way as D. Williams, Andrus and clutch free-throw shooting iced the game.  Not to mention a big block by junior Lenell Henry that made a difference in the last few minutes of the game.

The Panthers reserves -- led by D. Williams -- were utterly dominant in the stat sheets, outscoring the Tigers' bench 43-8. Additionally, the Panthers harassed the Tigers into 24 turnovers and made 14 steals.

"All (the reserves) think they're starters," Smith said. "So it's no surprise. Faite thinks he should be starting. Darius feels like he should be starting, Chancellor Ellis feels the same about himself and deservedly so. We've got a strong bench and a strong core of 10 guys, and that's not counting the three or four guys we left at home. We have depth, is my point. We have guys that on any given night could lead us in scoring, and that's what we're going to need. Patterson and Andrus are our big guns, but we've got guys that can go out and fill it up for us on any given night."

Griffin, who entered the weekend as the league's leading scorer, netted 19 points and seven boards to lead Jackson State. Tristan Jarrett added 17 points.

Next Up:
The Panthers return to the friendly confines of home as Arkansas-Pine Bluff comes to town Saturday, Jan. 25. Tip-off is set for 5:30 p.m. from the Baby Dome.